


Unbound

by Qualyn



Category: Sherlock (TV), Vampire: The Masquerade
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Human John, M/M, Vampire Sherlock, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-13
Updated: 2014-07-13
Packaged: 2018-02-08 16:50:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1948806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qualyn/pseuds/Qualyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being captured in Afghanistan put John in a very difficult position, in more ways than one. </p><p>With nothing more than a honorable discharge, a bullet wound in his shoulder and his meagre posessions,  John Watson found himself back in London. It didn't feel like home anymore. He didn't know what to do and as he kept telling Ella, nothing ever happened to him; he had nothing to talk about. </p><p>After all, he wasn't supposed to talk about the Vampires.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unbound

**Author's Note:**

  * For [peanutfishies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peanutfishies/gifts).



> I love vampire!lock fics and I love the universe of Vampires: The Masquerade. So you can imagine I was very happy when I received a prompt asking for vampire!Sherlock for the [ Exchangelock AU](http://exchangelock.tumblr.com/) on tumblr.
> 
> This was supposed to be a long one-shot, but I had so many ideas I kept changing the plot over and over again. I ended up only deciding what I liked the best almost on the day of the deadline, so I only had time to write this small first chapter.
> 
> So peanutfishies, I wanted Sherlock to appear in the first chapter, but I couldn't make it. Don't worry, he'll make his appearance soon! I hope you enjoy this story!
> 
> Beta read by the awesome Xander from the [ The Beta Service](http://thebetaservice.tumblr.com;) on tumblr.
> 
> ~~~+~~~

**The Beginning of the End**

 

 

Night had come and covered the desert with its starry darkness. The cold came with it, but the sense of unease present at the camp made the air seem stuffy, not with heat, but with tension. Nothing happened for days. Weeks even. It had never been so quiet on the front lines ever since John arrived. Some weeks were filled with the sound of gunfire and explosions, the screams of pain, orders being shouted and the seemingly never ending line of patients. But now, the air itself seemed stagnant. Every soldier was restless and most on edge. Everyone felt that something was about to happen, and when it didn’t, the air got thicker and heavier.

 

John didn’t even try to lie to himself. He was as tense as everyone else, but somehow things seemed worse in Medical. Almost every day now, he had the feeling he was being watched. He knew he wasn’t the only one. Every once in a while someone would turn suddenly, glancing at every corner of the room, desperately looking for something that wasn’t there. No one ever said a thing. How could they, when they also felt the same?

 

It had been a particularly bad day. There were times John could have sworn there was someone breathing down his neck. In one way he was glad to be in his bed, listening to nothing other than his own breathing and the low murmur of the soldiers on duty. But on the other hand, it was worse. He felt like a child again, alone in his dark room, afraid of the monsters that surely were lurking in the shadows where he couldn’t see. He closed his eyes and while breathing deeply, forced himself to relax. After a couple of minutes he thankfully began to feel sleep pulling him under.

 

He felt it again. Someone was there, close to him. He opened his eyes to nothing. He had not, in fact, opened his eyes. He couldn’t open his eyes. He couldn’t move. Panic was setting in. He heard shouts. No. No, they needed him. They were being attacked, he had to get up, he had to, he had-

 

~~~+~~~~

 

He didn’t know where he was.

 

Consciousness came slowly, and he became aware of his surroundings by touch and smell first. He didn’t want to open his eyes yet, not in case someone was watching him. That was what he told himself, but if he were completely honest, he was just scared of opening his eyes and finding darkness again, he was afraid he was still trapped in that hell of nothingness.

 

He was on the ground, of that he was sure. He was laying down on top of something, but it was thin enough he could feel the rock underneath. He wasn’t bound. The air felt heavy, the same way it had when he had been a child and had visited some caves with his family. If he strained his ears he could make out some sounds. It seemed like several drops falling into what he supposed was water. The sound of the drops hitting the water surface echoed immensely. Was he underground? Perhaps in a cave in a mountain range. It smelled damp and he felt trapped and like there wasn't enough air.

 

He felt himself getting more and more calm as he started to put the pieces together, but he wouldn’t be able to know much more without seeing his surrounds. Slowly, he opened his eyes. The sight of naked stone greeted him. There was a small lamp hanging in the wall. LED he assumed by the bright white light. As far as he could see, other than the thin and dirty mattress he was laying on, the room was empty. The mattress was in a corner and, as he sat up, he leaned back against the wall to look around properly. The room was small, three or four paces and he’d reach the opposite wall. There was even less distance between the other wall the door.

The door; now that was a mystery. It was made of a sort of dark wood that John had only seen in posh mansions from period dramas, vitral panel in the middle and all. It couldn’t be more out of place if it tried. He was still staring at it, confused and feeling out of it, when he heard scuffling and a scream. His hand immediately went to his waist and, unsurprisingly, found no gun. He had been taken when he was in bed and he kept no weapons in his pyjamas, unfortunately.

 

The sounds were coming closer. He carefully approached the door and stood next to it, with his back to the wall. They were passing by his door and he could tell someone was dragging another person. There were no sounds of struggling anymore. He closed his eyes in silent prayer to who he was almost sure, was a colleague of his. He couldn’t afford opening the door and giving himself away. He was unarmed and their captors surely were. He didn’t know where he was and, if he tried to blindly escape, he would surely get himself in a worse situation. He reached hesitantly to the doorknob and tried to turn it. It was locked.

A sudden overwhelming sense of dread hit him and, before he knew it, he was curled in a corner of the room, arms raised in a defensive stance and eyes closed tight, shivering like cornered prey.

 

He was confused. Confused and afraid. He had never felt anything like that before. He never thought he would ever be so affected in these types of situations. He had been trained for them, damn it.  
Taking deep breaths, John opened his eyes slowly and looked at the door, convinced someone, something, was about to come through.

 

Minutes passed and nothing happened. Slowly, John started to calm down, breath evening out, body relaxing and the overwhelming sense of panic began bleeding away. He got up and paced the room, his hands flexing.

 

A click and the doorknob moved.

 

 _This is it,_ John thought. He moved and stood in the middle of the small room, facing the door, trying to look as if he was stoically waiting and prepared for the first meeting with his captors. His body, ready for action if needed, and his mind running every different and possible scenario he could think of. He did not want to suffer the same fate of that other poor fellow. He _was_ going to survive.

The door opened but no one was there.

He could only see a stone wall and that didn’t help him get any sense of his prison’s layout other than the way out being either left or right. The dragging sound had come from left to right, but he had no way to know if the other hostage had been taken closer to the exit or even deeper into the cave they were in.

Startled and confused, John leaned forward a bit, trying to catch a glimpse of something. He felt that unnatural sense of fear looming closer. He gasped as he felt shivers running through his body. It didn’t make any sense, the fear and horror coming and going like that for apparently no reason, but this time he fought it, struggled with the instinct of running and hiding and shakily, he stepped forward. One foot after the other, slowly and breathing heavily, eyes glued to the door.

 

“Boo!”

 

Stumbling back, John shouted in alarm but then he felt like he couldn’t draw a breath. The feeling of fear and panic was all too real now. There was something in the room with him, standing by the door and laughing at him. It was grotesque, it was a monster. It couldn’t be real. It couldn’t have appeared out of thin air.

 

“Got you there!” It kept laughing. “Now, now, calm down. No need for the abdabs, Doc!”

 

John was almost sure he was hyperventilating but he felt numb, distanced from reality. He could not believe what he was seeing. It had the body of a human male, a disfigured body. Hollow cheeks and sunken red eyes. Huge pointed ears and a mouthful of crooked sharp teeth that didn’t even fit inside his mouth. But the worst was it's skin, if he could call it that. He could see everything beneath almost perfectly. He could see each muscle, each tendon as if there was only a thin translucent layer protecting them. It was only wearing a pair of dirty grey trousers and combat boots. He tried not to think too much of the claws he caught a glimpse of.

 

A snap brought John back to his senses. The fear was gone. All that was left was pure shock and disbelief. He looked back to its face. Staring at the red eyes seemed a slightly better alternative than staring at everything under its skin.

 

“Done ogling me?”

 

“What? No! I - What-”

 

“Shhh!” It turned its face to the door and sniffed a couple of times. “Kine’s coming back. Quick.”

 

It moved forwards, towards him, and John instinctively stepped back. “Don’t-”

 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Doc!”

 

And everything went black.


End file.
